Page:Earl Derr Biggers - Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913).djvu/97

Rh "I don't know about you, gentlemen, but I could fall on Mr. Peters neck and call him blessed."

The gentleman thus referred to served them genially. He brought to Mr. Magee, between whom and himself he recognized the tie of au thorship, a copy of a New York paper that he claimed to get each morning from the station agent, and which helped him greatly, he said, in his eternal search for the woman. As the meal passed, Mr. Magee glanced it through. Twice he looked up from it to study keenly his queer com panions at Baldpate Inn. Finally he handed it across the table to the haberdasher. The dull yel low sun of a winter morning drifted in from the white outdoors; the fire sputtered gaily in the grate. Also, Mr. Peters' failing for literature in- terfered in no way with his talents as cook. The three finished the repast in great good humor, and ^Mr. Magee handed round cigars.

"Gentlemen," he remarked, pushing back his chair, "we find ourselves in a peculiar position. Three lone men, knowing nothing of one another, we have sought the solitude of Baldpate Inn at